For many, Just Dance is as big a part of the annual video game release schedule as FIFA or Call of Duty. Ubisoft's dance title has built up a healthy following among casual gamers looking to let loose and have some fun, something which Just Dance 4 aims to capitalise on with a number of improvements to its group-based game modes. Short on innovation but high on fun, Just Dance 4 is another title sure to please the crowds.

At its core, Just Dance 4 looks and plays like its predecessors. The neon-coloured, cartoon visual style returns, setting the tone for a game geared towards fun. Brightly dressed dancers carry out the outrageously enjoyable dance routines against backdrops recreating nightclubs, living rooms and even wrestling rings. It's an extremely vibrant visual style that's absolutely jam-packed with personality.

Users are encouraged to mimic the dance moves by following a series of on-screen cues below the avatars. The scoring system is extremely generous, ensuring that players with even less rhythm than a John Sergeant / Ann Widdecombe pairing can prosper.

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Unlike the majority of Kinect games, Just Dance 4 doesn't punish users for the camera's shortcomings, it simply brushes them aside. This might not sit well with hardcore gamers, but the result is a title that can be picked up and enjoyed by everyone.

Although not an entirely new feature, one of the game's more enjoyable scenarios is the much-improved Battle Mode, which sees two players dance it out to a mash-up of two different songs. Taking place over five rounds, it's structured like a traditional fighting game, complete with health bars and bragging rights. It's as much fun as it sounds, largely due to some eclectic song pairings.

'Just Sweat', the game's resident fitness mode, also returns. Again, while not wildly different from its previous outing, it makes one or two welcome improvements. The addition of a calorie counter and intensity tracker, for example, lends more credibility to the mode as a genuine fitness aid. It also features some of the more entertaining fitness routines we've sampled, although not all users will be comfortable jumping around like a cheerleader for 20 minutes.

Dance Quests are another new feature, challenging players with completing specific objectives within each song. Challenges include maxing out the star count, nailing all gold moves, or receiving a certain level of feedback when a particular lyric is sung. Dance Quest won't revolutionise the way you play, but it provides a nice incentive to return to songs.

The Xbox 360 exclusive 'Just Dance TV', meanwhile, captures those embarrassing dances forever, allowing users to share them online. Once a song is completed, the game mixes together a batch of highlights, the result of which is a genuinely amusing music video. It's been done before, but provides a fitting social element to what is clearly a group game.

Arguably the important update is the soundtrack, however, which this year is more layered than a multi-coloured platform shoe. The game contains a healthy combination of camp classics, cheesy pop tunes, modern hits and genuine floor-fillers, ensuring that there's something for everybody.

Personal favourites include Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up' and 'Time Warp', but it's just as much fun rocking out to Pink's 'So What' or getting your groove on to 'Good Feeling' by Flo Rida.

A number of the game's 40+ tracks have alternative routines, some of which ramp up the difficulty, others make life easier, while the occasional one or two add props. It's enormously entertaining swinging a sword to classic rave tune 'Tribal Dance', or rocking the brolly with Rihanna's 'Umbrella'. Our only complaint is that we would have welcomed even more alternative routines, especially the gimmicky ones.

Just Dance 4 is less of a sequel and more of an annual update, tinkering and tweaking with existing game modes in order to please its fanbase. Even so, an excellent soundtrack coupled with alternative routines, mashups and dance battles ensures that Ubisoft's latest continues to provide hours of entertainment.

More Macarena than Mambo, Just Dance 4 doesn't concern itself with complex dance routines, pitching itself instead to the weekend party crowd, who just want to shake their hips and have some fun.